You are also required to have your drive and walk plowed to the front door.

I think the duplexes would be better in terms of phasing the construction with the bank, and I know in my city anything over 4 units needs to meet all the efficiency and environmental guide lines, which drives the cost of materials.

In CA AB-1482 + CAP is going to drive value going forward.

Local REIA(s), Meetups, HML's, Craigslist, drive & look for rehabs, etc.

Do the following, go to assessor's website of county you live in, locate GIS data organizing properties by number of units, download excel spreadsheet of addresses/owner info, import into google maps using site such as batchgeo, drive by and identify 15-30 properties you're interested in, skip trace owners to find current address, text/email/call owners, be consistent & do this every 1-2 weeks, you find a property in 1-3 months. 

If so, I would suggest making a list of local banks and credit unions local to the property (within 1 hour drive) and contacting them all.

Driving the community, clearly abandoned home.

The duration of the project will drive how you structure the financing.  

We try to fly down every couple months and just drive around to get to know the neighborhoods.

With the market where it's at, with so many people overpaying and thus driving prices up and making deals assets less lucrative, this structure allows deals to still be attractive for upside investors while providing a nice safe (in some cases, not all deals are safe/good) investment for those who are looking for capital preservation over growth.